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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS
February 15 - 21, 2014
A Weekly News column that puts you on the spot for your opinions on the issues of the day
Power outage
THIS week two major faults at FortisTCI’s power station led to an island-wide blackout which lasted up to two days in some areas. Eddington Powell, CEO and president of the energy company, said it was an unfortunate and “catastrophic failure” and stressed that staff were working around the clock to fix the problems. Meanwhile hotels, businesses and residents all suffered to various degrees from the lack of power. How were you affected by the power outage? What are your thoughts on how FortisTCI handled the issue?
Gold plated monopoly
Considering what Fortis charges us there is absolutely no excuse for a “catastrophic failure,” it will all boil down to human error or lack of maintenance. At the rates they are charging, human error and maintenance should not be a factor. They are making plenty for both training and maintenance. And the delivery wires should be made of gold! It’s another legacy of the former PNP government and the compliance of the FCO in their complete rape of this country. The best part about this is with their gold plated monopoly and profit deal with the Government, the cost of repairs will only be added on to our power bills.
Foreign management
They have burned up three internet modems, one refrigerator, two televisions and have cooked three of their own transformers in less than 10 years, serving my neighbours and our home. One neighbour lost all her appliances and they refused to pay. Who will pay for the spoiled food and lost tourism? This problem does not lie with the Belonger employees but with the foreign management from Canada and Cayman. The planes are leaving everyday carrying out InterHealth Canada patients and they have room for Fortis managers.
More information needed It is an unfortunate fact of life that things
mechanical and electrical will fail from time to time, often in spite of the best preventative maintenance programmes. Having lived here for 17 years I must congratulate Fortis on what is generally a very commendable level of service, particularly considering that electricity here all flows from a single source. I have always found them to respond promptly to service complaints, and their repair crews are very capable and courteous. But, given its monopoly on power supply in Providenciales, I think it incumbent on FortisTCI to assure us that this “catastrophic failure” was NOT the result of improper operator attention or inadequate maintenance procedures. Should a particular piece(s) of equipment have
been inspected and/or serviced more frequently? Is there a backup system for the failed component(s) that could have been put in place at a reasonable cost? Was any of this lengthy delay the result of not having the necessary spares on hand? Did we experience any kind of cascading problem that could/should have been anticipated and guarded against? Perhaps a detailed explanation of what transpired (in laymen’s terms) would help us all feel more comfortable that everything realistic has and is being done to try and prevent any recurrence of this service disruption.
Renewable energy
Time to go solar!
Different and unexpected Life is life we all were around before electricity.
For those with medical needs they should always ask if there is a generator at the facility. I assume the hospitals have generators. I lived in the Boston area and have lived in Vermont where there was no power and it was below freezing. These experiences develop character, good stories, some not good stories but memories usually. It teaches us how lovely it is to hear NOTHING not even the refrigerator. I feel that the power company worked hard and diligently. This was beyond what they imagined, I am assuming, would happen but so they learned too. Life is all about how you deal with it, not what you get. It is about the journey not the destination. I was annoyed as it was my day to work on the computer for 16 hours but ‘c’est la vie’. I will get to it in a couple of days. We’ve never had electrical outage with no storm so it was different and unexpected. I always have extra water and dry food just in case. Flash lights and batteries too. So lessons learnt. I also bought ice for my cooler in case it lasted even longer I could ice my refrigerator food.
Manmade things fail Manmade things fail sometimes
I was without power like many during the time of the outage but what I saw was the creativity of Islanders who used the cooking skills from ‘back in the day’ to prepare a meal on the outside. I heard others talk about appreciating a moon
lit, cool night (something we may take for granted) and others who wondered about persons who do not have electricity in their daily routines. FortisTCI did update customers about what was happening and sometimes manmade things fail. It is almost always in the time of crisis that testing is done and Mr Powell did speak about what happened. ‘Today’ was FortisTCI’s day and ‘today’ could be your day too so yes we were uncomfortable for a bit (and I don’t work for FortisTCI) but I wonder how we would respond if a “catastrophic failure” were to impact our business place.
Cut profits
The facts seem to charge Fortis with incompetence. The CEO admitted on television that the cable that failed was known to be old and therefore vulnerable. A couple of years ago they spent millions to build a big fancy office for the CEO and his management people. They are not working on a shoe string because they have the highest rates anywhere and are sending millions back to Canada. Where is the backup? The disaster Powell calls a catastrophe was not an act of God but poor management. Cut their profits and rates in half and build in redundancy.
Have a backup plan
The TCI bills itself as a high end destination and we certainly do pay more for power than anywhere else in the Caribbean, but we are still a third world country in so many ways. So hotels and businesses might have had the foresight to invest in backup generators or some form of alternative power. For visitors who will and did complain - I'll bet they were a lot better off here in paradise without air conditioning than in Miami or in New York without power! Our restaurants have gone through this many times before so one would hope they have some kind of backup plan. And surely our ultra-luxury condo-hotels, charging a very impressive nightly rate all year round, have back up power. Whether or not Fortis could have prevented this black out, I think people need to be reminded that they must look after themselves if they can and quit expecting the Government to do anything/everything for them (I refer to all past governments, not just the current one). And let us hope that this was a onetime event but be prepared for future black outs, related or unrelated to hurricanes.
What about wind?
Fortis, as an energy supplier for the TCI needs to look at alternative energy sources. God has given us so much sun. Fortis do you know about solar? I watch television and see that the Florida Power and Light have drastically reduced their need for oil to supply their energy needs. They use solar, also known as capturing the sun’s energy and releasing it in the form of electricity. Also, what about wind? All that wind blowing from those little vacant islands. Get the windmills up and going! Like most businesses they want to reap big profits but don’t want to invest in making the island energy efficient.
Wake up lesson
Classic response by the CEO, two major faults cover the excuse or reason for not defaulting to the emergency. Technically he said that too failed.
In an emergency state for some 24 hours is treason - from Europe to TCI is only 12 hours why so long? That is what happens when utilities are sole sourced and privately owned. This is a wake up lesson for the pro-independence and the TCIG to take the appropriate action.
Cheap, low impact energy The recent power outage only highlights the need
to promote alternative energy sources. With substantial technical advances in solar, wind, tidal, and other methods to produce cheap, low impact energy, TCI could reap huge savings and significantly reduce oil-based energy dependence.
No excuse
There is no explanation that Fortis TCI power station can give that can excuse a power company with no fail safe method or redundancy plan to prevent catastrophic power outage! What kind of third world Mickey Mouse operation is going on by that company? Catastrophic failure caused by a natural disaster is understandable for any system-wide outage for more than one hour. But just a total plant/equipment melt down where power is out for more than 24 hours and the weather is as calm as a baby backside is criminal! Even BEC in the Bahamas can do better than that, and if BEC can do better than that company, they need to hang their heads in shame.
Mixed up priorities
Thomas Edison turned the lights on and our own Eddington turned them off, and the rest of us come to that! Surely some better orchestrated public relations wouldn’t have come amiss here. The television rendition was the usual inane corporate exculpation and customers querying what happened were met with cold rebuffs. If the explosion was old equipment, with the extortionate rates we pay surely investment in newer stuff would obviate this. Why do we have outages when we pay the highest utility rates in the world? As usual expect sweet nothing from our dysfunctional Government. The Brits aren’t interested and along with our rag tag local bunch are too busy ‘tripping the light fantastic’. I hope the Governor and Premier enjoyed their latest trip to Richard Branson’s alternative energy conference on his Necker Island where there aren’t any border control, crime, healthcare (or rat infested post offices for that matter) messes to address? Bet the lights didn’t go out there! Somehow the priorities get mixed up.
Job well done
I think Fortis did their best to restore power and got the job done. Also a few dollars should be taken off the bill.
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